Ok so one of my close friends announced she and her husband were splitting up about 5 months ago, and my DH and I went to high school with both of them and we have been "couple friends" for years now, so the announcement came as a total shock to everyone including us...especially since she always went over the top acting like their marriage was perfect and they were OMGSOINLOVE!!! She told me privately he had been cheating, and he supposedly told her he didn't ever really love her...so I felt awful for her, and for their 5 year old son and daughter who was only 5 months old at the time (and of whom my DH and I had been asked to be informal godparents to). One thing I was grateful for though was that since we had just moved halfway across the country, we wouldn't have to deal with the awkwardness of their breakup/divorce in person at least. I did have some suspicions for a while before all of this though about her inappropriately close relationship with her "BFF" that happened to be a guy - AND her now-soon-to-be-ex-SIL's ex-BF (crazy complicated I know lol) and she seemed to move on to a relationship with him pretty quickly...well fast forward to just a couple of months ago, and she randomly calls me to interrogate me about "what I know" - to which I responded "About WHAT?!?" and over the course of that conversation she confesses that she too had cheated on her husband, and ***drumroll please*** her daughter wasn't her husband's, but the "BFF"/new boyfriend's. She told me she had known all through her pregnancy it wasn't her husband's, and he supposedly had known also but they were going to try to make their marriage work despite everything and he would raise the baby as his own. I was flabbergasted of course, but tried to tell myself it was her life and she was the only one who was going to have to deal with that nightmare (since thankfully we had moved away lol)

Now, fast forward again to just a couple weeks ago when we went back to our old hometown to visit for spring break, and with her being one of our closest friends naturally I assumed we would be seeing her while we were there...well after my first attempt to make arrangements with her, she asked if it was ok if she brought the new BF along - and after discussing it with my DH, we both agreed it was just too much for us to process and deal with at one time (adjusting to not seeing her with her husband, who my DH had been close with as well, to now seeing the baby and recognizing she has a different father than we originally thought, to now trying to accept her new BF/baby daddy) so I explained that to her as nicely as possible, and rather than being understanding she decided to instead refuse to see us while we were there if we wouldn't let her bring him too. Much drama and ridiculousness ensued, and in the end we left after a week and only saw her - by chance - for about 20 minutes total. I was incredibly hurt by her attitude and unreasonable behavior, and after we got back home she and I exchanged multiple pointless, frustrating FB messages where she basically refused to see where we were coming from and just kept going on and on about how IN LOOOOOVE she is now and how he is "part of her package" and we needed to embrace him. :/

Our visit also brought to light another somewhat related issue though, since various mutual friends and acquaintances I have with her kept asking me (knowing I was closer to her) what was the deal with the new guy who was suddenly present in all of her pics...which made me realize she hadn't actually been very clear that she and her husband were even getting a divorce, MUCH LESS the fact that he was not the father of her baby! She had changed her relationship status from "married" to "separated" for like a week when they first split up, and then to "in a relationship" right around Halloween, but when someone tried to question her about it she laughed it off and said "I mean with candy corn! hehe!" so she really hadn't been very honest about it at all. She has over 700 friends, and I know there is no way she is close with ALL of those 700 people so of course they wouldn't know what is going on with her in real life, and I also realize she has no obligation to most of them to explain anything...but she is also more than open now with pictures of the new BF with the baby, captioned "Daddy" and the like, so clearly she isn't hiding the fact...

Fast forward one more time to just a couple days ago, and she and I had a very heated phone conversation where I was trying to tell her about the confusion our mutual friends & acquaintances had about her marriage/new relationship and how did she plan to handle explaining the situation with her daughter's true paternity? Her answer was that she just figured everyone could "figure it out" on their own, and if they wanted to ask her then she would tell them. I told her that no one is ever going to do that (I know I never would have!) because even if they did suspect her husband wasn't the father they would never come out and ask her out of respect for her privacy and to avoid receiving an awkward denial/confession... I realize that in this day and age with social networking we are in uncharted territory when it comes to handling complex, personal news such as this, but what do you all think she should do? I told her I certainly don't know how I would handle it if it were me, but I sure as heck DO know the way she is going about EVERYTHING is wrong. Our friendship is pretty much hanging by a thread right now, since I've done my best not to judge her based on the mistakes she made (she has no problem admitting the cheating and everything was a mistake and her fault - NOW, though not initially when she tried to blame it on her husband cheating first) My anger at her comes from her behavior and actions since.

Honestly, she is a total drama queen and thrives on situations such as this (which she always creates for herself) so saving our friendship at this point doesn't even matter to me...especially since we moved anyways. SHE however, has taken to begging and pleading and crying for me to not be angry with her, to which I just told her I guess whenever we go out there again for another visit we will see how everyone feels at that time and take it from there. This whole thing is just so ridiculous and annoying :/ After our phone conversation she posted a status talking about how she "had been informed that there might be some confusion out there about her life, and if anyone wants to ask her anything feel free to PM her" but then she started rambling about "And NO, I'm not gay, despite my recent avid support of gay marriage rights! hehe" which I felt completely deflected from the seriousness of the first part of her post and successfully distracted everyone since she and one of her gay friends went back and forth in the comments for a while about how funny it would be if anyone thought she was gay. She did have one friend comment and ask her why doesn't she just come out and say what it is once and be done with it, to which she responded that she would much rather handle it "one-on-one" than post it publicly...

I am just at a total loss trying to figure out what the best course of action would be in this situation, since I definitely cannot imagine what I would do if I were in her shoes (which I seriously doubt I EVER would be) but she has made no secret of her new relationship and seemingly his relation to the baby, but for those who aren't as active on FB or aren't very observant, they would definitely miss all of the "clues" she thinks she is leaving. So my issues with her are of both the standard etiquette and techno-quette type, as follows:

1. How should a divorce announcement be handled on FB? Especially with children involved, a multitude of mutual friends and goal of maintaining amicability? Oh and can't forget about the mutual infidelity too...

2. How soon after such a divorce/separation should mutual friends be expected to accept the new BF/GF? In this case, no divorce or separation papers have even been filed yet nor do they seem to be in a hurry to do so, so it is hard to expect a typical timeframe for being "officially divorced" :/

3. What obligation, if any, could someone be expected to have to explain the true paternity of their child on FB? Especially when they are in a new relationship with the true father, and seem to make no secret of his relation...but haven't come right out and said it.

In my friend's case, I'm pretty sure she is avoiding making it public knowledge what she did because she A. Doesn't want people to think badly of her or for her friend count to go down, and B. She knows she will feel the need to justify her actions by using the excuse that her husband was cheating first, and she claims she does not want to sully his name or embarrass him. She even had the gall to say it was "out of respect for him and his family" (after cheating on him with his sister's ex-BF!) Oh and I forgot to mention she actually facilitated the breakup of the ex-SIL and her BF, since he had "confided in her" that he didn't love the SIL anymore and wanted to break up with her but didn't know how...and then confessed he actually had a "crush" on my MARRIED friend :| But even after all that, they continued to be "BFFs" and obviously ended up screwing each other. *smh*

Honestly, she is a total drama queen and thrives on situations such as this (which she always creates for herself) so saving our friendship at this point doesn't even matter to me...especially since we moved anyways.

You've solved your own problem right here.

As for your questions...

No-one has any obligation to announce anything publicly, on social media sites or otherwise, which is a personal or family matter. Paternity and divorce both come under this heading. Frankly, it's none of anyone else's business, and if they can't cope with not knowing, then they've been watching far too much trashy daytime television. If your 'friend' does not portray herself consistently on facebook or anywhere else for that matter, she will simply have to deal with it when confusion naturally arises in conversation and the like. But the notion that anyone is obligated to announce such personal things online is absurd at best. Any announcement is made only because one wants one's friends and family to know something, not because one is somehow bound to tell them. If she doesn't want certain things known, that's all there is to it.

With accepting new partners, that depends of course on the people involved. There is no single rule for everyone. Although I would strongly advise against poisoning the well and forming poor opinions of someone unaware and innocent of past drama.

Pen^2 said what I would have said, only better. Friend has no obligation to announce anything. Everything you discussed here, even though it seems to have you distraught, is actually nobody's business.

Honestly, she is a total drama queen and thrives on situations such as this (which she always creates for herself) so saving our friendship at this point doesn't even matter to me...especially since we moved anyways.

You've solved your own problem right here.

As for your questions...

No-one has any obligation to announce anything publicly, on social media sites or otherwise, which is a personal or family matter. Paternity and divorce both come under this heading. Frankly, it's none of anyone else's business, and if they can't cope with not knowing, then they've been watching far too much trashy daytime television. If your 'friend' does not portray herself consistently on facebook or anywhere else for that matter, she will simply have to deal with it when confusion naturally arises in conversation and the like. But the notion that anyone is obligated to announce such personal things online is absurd at best. Any announcement is made only because one wants one's friends and family to know something, not because one is somehow bound to tell them. If she doesn't want certain things known, that's all there is to it.

With accepting new partners, that depends of course on the people involved. There is no single rule for everyone. Although I would strongly advise against poisoning the well and forming poor opinions of someone unaware and innocent of past drama.

I would add that people may be obligated not to post/announce information that involves other people's personal and family information. So, posting the fact that you've separated or divorced? Absolutely fine, if you wish. Posting the details of why you're divorcing? Questionable. Posting that you have a new boyfriend/girlfriend after your separation and/or divorce? Fine, if you wish. Posting that you and your ex cheated on one another? Questionable, and you better be confident you won't mind having that information out on the internet in black and white forever. Putting details of your child's paternity online? IMO, probably inappropriate. That's not information that just impacts the mother. That is publicly announcing the child's personal information, which that child may not want to have out there. It's also getting into details of the husband's and biological father's personal relationships, too. However, while those adults might carry some responsibility for the situation and/or give their consent for the announcement, the child is the 100% absolutely innocent party whose privacy would be violated.

OP, you appear to have lost all respect for your friend, due to both the situation itself and her handling of it. Her "'fessing up" on facebook is not the solution to that, especially not if it's due to you pressuring her. If you no longer consider her a friend, then do yourself a favor and walk away. If you still want her as a friend, then you'll have to find a way to let go of this.

I think you are way more caught up in this than you need to be. It sounds like she's been through a lot if it's true that her husband was cheating on her and telling her that he didn't love her before she started seeing her new BF, and like she could have used some support from you instead of you refusing to see her with her new partner. I'm not saying you don't have the right to do what you need to for your own emotional sanity, I'm just saying it must have been hard for her, too. If you don't want to be friends with her anymore, let it go and move on.

I do think there could be some etiquette issues here in that she is not obligated to tell people anything but then people might ask about her (ex)husband, mention his (kinda) child, the child's (maybe/maybe not) grandparents, etc. If this is a smaller town then there will be ties when these people cross paths so not cluing in others could make it all a lot more awkward. I am not sure how you would tell people, when you should tell people, etc. but it seems really problematic not to share at least some of the information.

I am struck by the fact that you were glad to be moving away during her difficult time so that you could avoid "awkwardness", but have somehow become embroiled in awkward anyway.

I can't imagine an appropriate way to announce such personal information on Facebook. Why does she owe anyone the details of her divorce or especially her child's paternity? That's really personal, and not something that should be posted to 700 "friends".

Ask yourself how much of this affects you? Maybe the bit about meeting her new BF, but anything else? I don't see how. As for meeting him, wait if you'd like. But it sounds like your friend can sense that you are looking down on her choices and may assume that is why you don't want to meet him, as a punishment for her bad behavior. If that's true, you might want to rethink your involvement with her. If it isn't true, you could reconsider your decision.

I am struck by the fact that you were glad to be moving away during her difficult time so that you could avoid "awkwardness", but have somehow become embroiled in awkward anyway.

I can't imagine an appropriate way to announce such personal information on Facebook. Why does she owe anyone the details of her divorce or especially her child's paternity? That's really personal, and not something that should be posted to 700 "friends".

Ask yourself how much of this affects you? Maybe the bit about meeting her new BF, but anything else? I don't see how. As for meeting him, wait if you'd like. But it sounds like your friend can sense that you are looking down on her choices and may assume that is why you don't want to meet him, as a punishment for her bad behavior. If that's true, you might want to rethink your involvement with her. If it isn't true, you could reconsider your decision.

I think it depeds. If she now expects them to treat BF as "daddy" instead of ex then they need to know the new info. And if ex has been infromed he isn't daddy then it might be a kindness to let other people know so they don't assume he is a deadbeat.

I am struck by the fact that you were glad to be moving away during her difficult time so that you could avoid "awkwardness", but have somehow become embroiled in awkward anyway.

I can't imagine an appropriate way to announce such personal information on Facebook. Why does she owe anyone the details of her divorce or especially her child's paternity? That's really personal, and not something that should be posted to 700 "friends".

Ask yourself how much of this affects you? Maybe the bit about meeting her new BF, but anything else? I don't see how. As for meeting him, wait if you'd like. But it sounds like your friend can sense that you are looking down on her choices and may assume that is why you don't want to meet him, as a punishment for her bad behavior. If that's true, you might want to rethink your involvement with her. If it isn't true, you could reconsider your decision.

I think it depeds. If she now expects them to treat BF as "daddy" instead of ex then they need to know the new info. And if ex has been infromed he isn't daddy then it might be a kindness to let other people know so they don't assume he is a deadbeat.

If so, I would think that best done on an individual, need-to-know basis, rather than a newsfeed blast to approx 700 people.

If she has made it a point to change all her 'daddy' pics to an entirely different person and refused to give any explanation (even a brief non-judgmental one) she is vaguebooking. The whole 'there is some confusion about my life, PM me if you want to know' is also vaguebooking, IMO.

She is fine to not give announcements. She is fine if she does want to announce things. This halfway-almost-announce-what-gets-attention garbage is not fine. But she is an adult. You can't make her straighten out her life or her Facebook page. I think your best bet is to stay far, far away from this drama fest.

Logged

You are only young once. After that you have to think up some other excuse.

No-one has any obligation to announce anything publicly, on social media sites or otherwise, which is a personal or family matter. Paternity and divorce both come under this heading. Frankly, it's none of anyone else's business, and if they can't cope with not knowing, then they've been watching far too much trashy daytime television. If your 'friend' does not portray herself consistently on facebook or anywhere else for that matter, she will simply have to deal with it when confusion naturally arises in conversation and the like. But the notion that anyone is obligated to announce such personal things online is absurd at best. Any announcement is made only because one wants one's friends and family to know something, not because one is somehow bound to tell them. If she doesn't want certain things known, that's all there is to it.

With accepting new partners, that depends of course on the people involved. There is no single rule for everyone. Although I would strongly advise against poisoning the well and forming poor opinions of someone unaware and innocent of past drama.

Sorry for the wall of text, but unfortunately even with all of that I still was not able to include all of the details if this situation...it would be one thing if she didn't want to tell people the details, but the fact is she has no problem with people knowing and by confusing all of our mutual friends with the sudden appearance of her new relationship and clearly portraying the new BF as the baby's father when everyone was previously led to believe her husband was the father, she has put me in an uncomfortable predicament when people are asking ME what is going on, knowing I am one of her good friends and the baby's "godmother"...

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "poisoning the well", are you referring to my opinion of her new BF? Because my reluctance to meet him (I've actually already met him at her house before when he was the BF of her SIL) had nothing to do with that, and more to do with the fact that it hasn't even been but a couple of months since she told me about it all, and with us just coming back to town to visit it was alot to take in at one time...her pushiness about it was really what upset me though, since I felt she was refusing to take our feelings into consideration at all and only cared about herself and what she wanted.

If so, I would think that best done on an individual, need-to-know basis, rather than a newsfeed blast to approx 700 people.

I was thinking an easy solution for this problem, if she obviously doesn't know all 700 "friends" well enough to explain something so embarrassing and personal, would be to make lists of "real" friends and "online only" friends, and then make the announcement to only the "real" friend list. Problem solved. But in realty, I think she is wanting to keep it one-on-one so she can twist the details so suit whoever she is talking to...which I know for a fact she has done already in talking to another one of her close friends about it. And that is another reason I'm not too sure I want to be friends with her anymore.

I am struck by the fact that you were glad to be moving away during her difficult time so that you could avoid "awkwardness", but have somehow become embroiled in awkward anyway.

I can't imagine an appropriate way to announce such personal information on Facebook. Why does she owe anyone the details of her divorce or especially her child's paternity? That's really personal, and not something that should be posted to 700 "friends".

Ask yourself how much of this affects you? Maybe the bit about meeting her new BF, but anything else? I don't see how. As for meeting him, wait if you'd like. But it sounds like your friend can sense that you are looking down on her choices and may assume that is why you don't want to meet him, as a punishment for her bad behavior. If that's true, you might want to rethink your involvement with her. If it isn't true, you could reconsider your decision.

I was only referring to her initial divorce announcement in my "avoiding the awkwardness" reference, and yes it was a selfish motive...my becoming embroiled in it happened when I came to visit and was asked repeatedly by various mutual friends what was the deal with her and this new guy in all of her pics...I relayed that to her so that she would know there was confusion out there, since I knew she probably wasn't aware of it. I thought she would feel it was better to have people hear directly from her, rather than playing this ridiculous game of telephone. Her response was she didn't mind if untold them for her, which I felt was absurd. I shouldn't have to be the one telling people about that when she could settle it easily by explaining it herself.

If she has made it a point to change all her 'daddy' pics to an entirely different person and refused to give any explanation (even a brief non-judgmental one) she is vaguebooking. The whole 'there is some confusion about my life, PM me if you want to know' is also vaguebooking, IMO.

She is fine to not give announcements. She is fine if she does want to announce things. This halfway-almost-announce-what-gets-attention garbage is not fine. But she is an adult. You can't make her straighten out her life or her Facebook page. I think your best bet is to stay far, far away from this drama fest.

This is exactly what the problem is. My DH even told her what she was doing was vaguebooking, and she denied it. It is just so frustrating to see her clearly doing this for the sake of dragging the drama out for as long as possible and trying to rope me into the mess as well, hence my frustration.